Rock Machine

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the French electronic music label, see Rock Machine Records.

For the sampler albums issued by CBS Records in the UK in 1968, see Rock Machine sampler albums.

The Rock Machine was a drug dealing organization that evolved into a motorcycle gang primarily based in Quebec, Canada. The group was initially formed as the result of an affiliation between Montreal crime families such as the Pelletier Clan and other independent dealers who wished to resist the Hells Angels' attempts to establish a monopoly on street-level drug trade in the city. A violent turf war ensued with the Hells Angels. It was this turf war that prompted the Rock Machine to become a motorcycle club and align itself with the Bandidos motorcycle club from Texas. Initially most Rock Machine members did not even own motorcycles.

The members of the Rock Machine chose not to wear leather vests like other motorcycle gangs that could easily identify members, but rather wore rings with the insignia of an eagle.

Well-known former members of the Rock Machine included Peter Paradis, Richard "Bam-Bam" Lagacé (deceased), Johnny Plescio (deceased), Tony Plescio (deceased), Renaud Jomphe (deceased), Frederic Faucher (who later testified for the Crown at the trials of other members), Alain Brunette, and Paul Porter.

In 2000, the Rock Machine was absorbed into the Bandidos in a patch-over. Many Rock Machine members joined their former arch-enemy Hells Angels when the Bandidos refused to immediately grant full-patch status to many of the more junior patched members of the Rock Machine. Some high profile members to defect to the Angels included, Paul Porter and Nelson Fernandes. Both joined the Nomads chapter of the Quebec Hells Angels. Fernandes didn’t have much of a chance to enjoy his new position though, dying of cancer within months of becoming a Hells Angel.